Born in Canada of Italian descent, Paolo Rocco is truly a "DJ's DJ." He made a name for himself in the Montreal scene before deciding to experiment with production and has received support from the likes of Damian Lazarus, Nic Fanciulli, John Digweed, DJ Sneak, and Maya Jane Coles. Most recently, he released his 'I Know You Wanna Say It' EP on French label, La Vie En Rose. We had a chance to catch up with Paolo following the release to chat a bit about his experiences DJing in Montreal, some of the challenges he faced becoming a producer, mixing the Defected In The House Miami compilation, some of the ways he likes to spend his free time, and what else he has in store for the coming months.
You cut your teeth in the Montreal House/Electronic music scene. Tell us a bit about how you got your start? I was always simply interested in the craft of DJing. My real start in terms of spinning was when I met a group of local DJs that held a lot of residencies in commercial venues. Hanging out with them long enough made me a part of the crew and we all became friends. We were playing house, hip-hop, whatever made people on the commercial circuit move. There weren't many house gigs at that time and even the ones that existed had closed door policies when it came to booking new DJs so I started taking whatever gigs I could just to be able to play for a crowd and make a bit of money. The way I saw it was even though people would type cast me a sell-out or a cheesy DJ, this was the only open window I had open to make some money allowing me to buy myself production equipment and hopefully get to where I wanted to go. Once I saved up enough money I started producing, made a bit of a name for myself outside of Montreal which started turning heads, and now I'm fortunate enough to be a part of the house scene in my city alongside others.
What were some challenges you faced in Montreal? Has the city’s music scene changed/evolved a significant amount since you started your career? It's changed a lot. Montreal was always a city that brought in a lot of talent, but rarely exported any. There's a lot of politics here, and DJs often see other DJs as competition. More often than not they would rather prevent someone else from blossoming thinking that holding them back will help out their own careers. That's a backwards way of thinking... If one wants to push their career forward they should focus on exactly that, pushing their career forward and not waste time trying to hold everyone else back. That hierarchy held me back and frustrated me for a lot of years, I'm just happy I found it in myself to separate from all that and focus on my own thing.
Today it's different, not just for Montreal but in general. The younger generation figured out that they don't have to climb a ladder or go through anyone to get a record signed or play a gig. All they have to do is make a hit. Which is obviously easier said than done; but concentrating on their own brand beats following a veteran DJ, promoter, or owner around waiting for their approval. And to be honest, being someone that began at the end of the old school era through the new school way of doing things, I don't blame them either. I feel like the playing field evened out a little bit and brought things back down to two basic groups of DJs. People who work on their product, and people who try to control everyone else so they can stay relevant. The people who try to control are dying out while the people focused on their product are flourishing, and I think that's fine and pretty fair. I feel like the saying "contacts are everything" doesn't apply anymore. And that was what a lot of old school DJs based their whole business model around. However today you can get in touch with anyone you want to without having to go through anyone else. Sure contacts will help, but it's not "everything". With the internet, building new contacts has never been easier. So it comes down to who has the hotter product, who makes the hotter music, and who's hustling more. All this forced the older scenester figures to either shit or get off the pot. Either get to work or mentor and help someone else. Aside from that, the only other option is to quit because they'll end up being forced into retirment anyways. This being said there are a lot of other issues that come with this new free-for-all way of going about things, but that's how I've seen it evolve and continue to evolve for better or for worse.
You started off as a DJ, what sparked your desire to dabble in production? I originally started producing because I wanted to play for crowds in different time zones. I mean I wanted to DJ more, around the world, for more people, and I believed that I needed to have records to gain enough popularity to do that. With that influence I made shit music and it always came out rushed. Once I really got into it and started enjoying the process I fell in love with a whole new world of expression. Today I love it as much as I do spinning records, sometimes even more. It's a whole new way for me to spread a message to people but the honest truth is I first began making records to add to my DJ profile.
You recently had an EP come out on French imprint La Vie En Rose. How did you start working with Terry and the label? Well I've been a fan of French House music for a while from the DJ Gregory / Point G, Julien Jabre days to today with acts like Apollonia... La Vie En Rose was a cool label I was simply a fan of. Turned out my agent Lionel and Terence went way back so I sent over some music and voila!
Do you plan on collaborating with anyone in particular in the near future? When it comes to collabs I don't like it to be forced. I like it when things come together organically. I have a couple of people on Skype that I bounce ideas off of and vice versa so if collabs come out of that why not. Currently I have some stuff I'm working on with Alix Alvarez, Mr.KS, my hometown boy Jay London and more... But for now it's just us having fun with music.
You mixed the 2014 Defected In The House Miami compilation (Andrea Oliva and NICe7 also created mixes). How did this come about? Well Defected re-released "Move Body, Move Forward" and we've been chatting about working on more projects together for a while. So when they asked me if I wanted to put a disc together for them I jumped on the opportunity. A lot of people know me from my productions rather than as a DJ so it was a cool chance to showcase my track selecting DJ side as well.
Where in Montreal can we find you when you’re not working? Chilling with my friends and family. I'm blessed to have an amazing support system and the few times I have some free time to dedicate to myself I chose to spend it in good company whether it's at Faberge for brunch, my parents house for supper, a friends place or on a soccer (or football for the Europeans) field to try and stay in shape.
What else is on your horizon in the coming months? I've been a resident DJ at Stereo After-hours for over a year now and they just opened up Stereo Bar which is their downstairs during hours venue. I've been honoured to have the residency there on Saturdays. It's an amazing intimate space with a supreme DJ booth, second-to-none sound system, and a beautiful space for house music. I'm there every Saturday featuring hometown talent alongside myself week in and week out. When I'm not in town they take over and hold down the fort. We're a crew of about five DJs and you'll be hearing more about them from me in the coming months as they all have releases popping off. Aside from this residency we also put together a periodic event called "RAW Moments" where we all spin together, feature different forms of visual arts, and put together video recap episodes of the whole shit show. You can check it out here.
In terms of releases, I just finished mixing the Get Physical In Ibiza 2014 compilation which is coming out June 16th featuring a bunch of material of artists that I'm a big fan of. There's some exclusive originals, edits, remixes, all this packaged in a mix that's just over two hours.
I also have my next single "Gates Of Sand" dropping on Subb-an and Adam Shelton's One Records featuring some cutting edge remixes from Ed Davenport, Jack Wickham & Adam Shelton.
Besides that, I try to do as many gigs as my body can because I never know when this is all going to end and I want to soak up every minute of it that I can.
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